Spotlight on... Dr Luke de Noronha

Dr Luke de Noronha This week we meet Luke de Noronha, lecturer and programme director at the Sarah Parker Remond Centre. Luke is currently on research leave in Kingston, Jamaica, and chats to us here about what he'll be researching (and eating) in the country. What is your role and what does it involve?. I am a lecturer at the Sarah Parker Remond Centre in the Institute of Advanced Studies. The Centre was established in 2019 in response to student-led demands for the transformation of the curriculum and a reparative reckoning with the powerful, but often unacknowledged, colonial and imperial histories of our university, our city and our nation. I am the programme director for our MA in Race, Ethnicity and Postcolonial Studies, which is in its second year. The Centre also has a growing band of PhD students, postgraduate researchers, and activists-in-residence, and we host lots of events and a podcast. How long have you been at UCL and what was your previous role?. I joined UCL in January 2021. Before that, I was doing a postdoc and writing up book projects. What working achievement or initiative are you most proud of?. Being part of setting up and building the Sarah Parker Remond Centre, including our interdisciplinary MA and the racism and racialisation PhD group (which is open to students across UCL!). It has been extremely rewarding to work at the beginning of something like this. Tell us about a project you are working on now which is top of your to-do list?. I am currently in Kingston, Jamaica, on research leave for nine months. I am interested in the Jamaican government's rollout of a digital national ID scheme (NIDS). What problems does such a scheme promise to alleviate?